


Read Between the Lines

by Gorramshiny



Category: Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Genre: Gen, Jewish, Judaism, young wizards - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 19:03:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10703187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gorramshiny/pseuds/Gorramshiny
Summary: A short fic about a new wizard and her Bat Mitzvah





	Read Between the Lines

Sarah rolled her eyes at her mom as she thumbed open the worn paperback brick.

“You're taking your time with that one, sweetie,” her mom said playfully, taking her hands off the steering wheel at the red light.

“It can be confusing sometimes.” More than that, Sarah wouldn't ever tell her mom. Sarah's Wizard's Manual took the form of of Neil Degrasse Tyson's “Welcome to the Universe”, which she'd grabbed from a Barnes and Noble almost two months ago and opened on a whim. It would have been true enough of the actual book, too; the Manual had a copy of NDT's book inside as well, and Sarah was slogging her way through it when wizardry started making her head hurt. It didn't have any other books in it. When Sarah asked, she got a curt message scrawled on a page saying that this was the book she paid for, so she would get it, but nothing else.

Hey, Neil or G-d or someone had annotated her copy of the book with reference numbers to Manual pages for more info. So that was awesome.

The car pulled to a stop in front of Mrs. Lester's house and Sarah got out, grabbing her binder of info. Her mom pulled out her calendar and phone. She'd be calling the last few people who hadn't RSVP'd yet.

_Ugh. It's always this part._ She had almost everything, but there were two lines from her haftorah that she couldn't get the words right. No matter that she'd be reading it on the actual day. Mrs. Lester wanted her to memorize it, so memorize it she would. She sighed, and took the piece of paper from her binder, looking it over. She stopped. The Hebrew letters on the page shifted, most of them resolving into English.  _What the..._

They morphed again, into the curving swirls of the Speech.  _Oh right._ The Manual had told her about the auto-translation.  _I really don't need this right now. This doesn't help._ She blinked again and the ink seemed to snap back to the Hebrew and the trope marks, or the ways it was supposed to be sung that hung below or above the letters. The Speech sat behind the Hebrew, like looking at something shining through the other side of the paper.

“Is everything alright dear?” Mrs. Lester said.

“Oh right. Yeah. Sorry.”

When she sang through the portion again, the sheet in front of her, something rang in the words. It wasn't the leaning in of the universe like it was with a spell, but there was power behind it somehow. Sarah was carried away by it, and almost sad when it had to end. She laughed at herself a little.

“Oh that was beautiful, dear!” Mrs. Lester said, putting a thoroughly wrinkled hand on Sarah's shoulder. “Absolutely beautiful! You've been practicing at home, haven't you! I can tell.”

Sarah started to lie and say yes. She would have, if it had been a few months ago, but even though she hadn't been on her Ordeal yet, whatever it was going to be, she'd taken in the caution against lying. “I've been working on language recently.”

Mrs. Lester smiled and nodded. “Well, let's hear it one more time and then our time is up!”

 

When Sarah got back to her room, she pulled open the Manual. “Hey! Can you give me my torah portion?” she whispered to it. “It's public domain!” The Manual obliged, and she sat on her bed, comparing English and Hebrew and Speech translations—what she could understand with her limited vocabulary—until she was called for dinner.

 

At the Bat Mitzvah itself, everyone congratulated her on her reading. Some of the older folks cried, and said it reminded them of their parents or grandparents reading passages to them. The rabbi just smiled, and leaned in. She whispered in Sarah's ear, “That was an excellent reading. If you ever want advice, I'm here  _hrasht_ .” Cousin. Sarah looked at her wide-eyed and grinning, then curtsied. “I had some questions about translations of the Torah, if you don't mind.”

The adults around her whispered that she was so precocious, and so smart, and she really must love this. The rabbi just grinned back. “Any time.”

 


End file.
